Exploring preferences for present- and future-focused job opportunities across seniors and young adults

Given the rapid increase of the senior population around the world, the current research documents how the concept of time influences the job preferences of older and younger adults in an organizational behavior context. Study 1 reported that older adults devoted significantly more attention towards the present compared to the past and future, while younger adults showed a small preference towards the future compared to the past and present. Mediation analyses revealed that older adults' reduced sense of time remaining in life led to them devoting less time to the future. A novel finding from the current work was that sense of time remaining in life also significantly suppressed the relationship between age and present temporal focus. That is, an increased sense of time remaining in life was actually associated with enhanced focus on the present among seniors. Study 2 investigated the downstream consequences of temporal focus by examining older and younger adults' preferences for present- and future-focused job opportunities. Findings revealed that older adults showed a distinct preference for present-focused job opportunities over future-focused ones, whereas younger individuals reported the opposite pattern. These findings highlight how the concept of time influences individuals of varying ages in unique ways, leading to important differences in both cognition and behavior. The practical implications of these findings across various domains such as the workplace, leadership, and team dynamics are discussed.
Author(s): Faizan Imtiaz [sup.1] , Li-Jun Ji [sup.2] , Thomas Vaughan-Johnston [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.265122.0, 0000 0001 0719 7561, Department of Psychology, Towson University, , 21252, Towson, MD, USA [...]